On The Prowl:

A Feline Purr…spective

Purr…fect Fence

                                By Stacy Mantle

As you no doubt know by now, no less than fourteen cats own my very loving husband and me. Now these fourteen cats are unusual for many reasons, but they are most unusual in that they have, over the last 8 years, moved from being feral cats, to being “feral-ly” wild cats, to being “feral-ly” domesticated cats, to being “feral-ly” tolerable cats.

Feral cats, to begin with, are not the easiest animals in the world to get along with.  Even when they have become “ferally domesticated”, they remain difficult to live with. Obviously they are fiercely independent; they generally do not take instruction well, and are mostly argumentative just for the sake of being argumentative.  They also enjoy roaming outside, remaining hidden under the cloak of night, where they can stalk innocent and unsuspecting dogs that walk the sidewalks with their owners on the safety of leashes.  Our “ferally” domesticated cats’ hobbies include spraying the windshields of neighbor’s cars, pooping in meticulously cared for gardens, and creating as much noise as possible in the earliest morning hours.  Their yowls rival those of Chewbacca in Star Wars (who, rumor has it, was a very large, space age, overgrown feral cat), despite the fact that they are all “fixed”, and because of all of these bad habits, they have quickly made us the most unpopular people in our neighborhood. 

Despite these problems however, we have somehow managed to negotiate (and by that I mean bribe, threaten, cajole, blackmail, and beg) our way into a very fragile treaty with our neighbors. 

This delicate treaty states in no uncertain terms that my husband and I agree to monitor and manage the growth of the neighborhood stray cat population by making sure that any strays who show up are promptly spayed or neutered, properly vaccinated, and are kept fed so that they do not harm any of the birds that reside in our area.  In return, the neighbors agree not to vandalize our property, harm our animals, or stone us in the dark of night. 

What the neighbors would really like, however, is for the cats to simply disappear.  My husband and I, with the help of the country, have all agreed “making the cats disappear” is not a possibility.  However, we have also agreed that many of the “feral-ly tolerable” cats could probably learn to live in an enclosed area. 

And this, my friends, is where our long awaited product of the month comes into play…

Purr…fect Fence, a division of Benner’s Gardens, has been around for over twelve years, and while there are a vast number of cat enclosures on the market, none of them have really impressed me like Purr…fect Fence.  I say this for three reasons:  Customer service, product satisfaction, and community relations. 

When I first contacted Purr…fect Fence about doing a test run on one of their enclosures, they were anxious to let me try one of their pricier systems out.  Not only were they willing to ship it to me, they were willing to donate the large system to a nonprofit shelter in dire need of such an enclosure.  That demonstrated to me not only a tremendous amount of confidence in their product, but a magnanimous nature.  With nearly 1 million visitors to The Cat Site and Authors Den, it takes a lot of courage to ship off a product for review by someone who may or may not like it, and tell that person to “have at it.”  The chance they took paid off well, and now is the time for me to tell you why.

This wonderful fencing system is unique for a number of reasons, not the least of which being its invisibility when it’s set up.  Now, I’m not saying it is like Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak, because that would just be silly.  But it’s pretty close, and really, Potter would be proud.  The fence was originally designed to keep deer out of gardens – but Purr…fect Fence found it is wonderful at keeping cats in yards. 

The main point in keeping cats enclosed is to help keep your cats safe and your neighbors happy.  The enclosures come in 100 square foot set ups and since my dogs balked at having the majority of their yard taken over by our felines, I was forced to use only 20 feet of the fencing system, donating the remainder to a no-kill shelter.  The very happy recipient of the remaining 80 feet of my enclosure was Miss Kitty’s Cat House, a no-kill cat shelter located in Prescott, Arizona.  My husband and I drove up, delivered, and installed this enclosure for the very grateful rescue group.  What makes this particular rescue unique is that the felines live in a house all by themselves – over 20 cats in one beautiful home overlooking the valley of Prescott.  The drawback?  They can’t go outside because it’s too dangerous.  But no more – now they can spend all day long lounging in the sun thanks to the generosity of Purr…fect Fence.  And that, my friends, is precisely what they did. 

The first thing that they did was test their boundaries.  They tried to climb up the fence (no luck – too flimsy), they searched below (too solid), attempted to dig out (to deeply staked), and tried to bite through the fence (too strong).  The fencing system was impenetrable.  Not only could the cats not get out, predators could not get in! 

It has foiled all species - both feline and canine.  Now because I am limited in space, I cannot discuss in detail the construction of this wonderful system, nor can I explain how much my cats, Miss Kitty’s shelter cats, and especially my neighbors, enjoy this enclosure.  So – let me just say that within one day of setting it up, two volunteers at Miss Kitty’s had requested information on the system to purchase for their own kitties.  It is well worth the investment.   To find out more, please visit www.purrfectfence.com and tell them Stacy’s neighbors sent you.

From the cats:

Hisses & Spits:  If we HAVE to be confined, I guess this is better than being stuck in a house.

Purrs:  I suppose we are appreciative of our humans looking after our safety, but this fence sure takes the fun and adventure out of life. 

From the humans:

Two opposable thumbs up!

Drawback?  The setup directions are sorely in need of a rewrite – watch the video for the best help, or be creative on setting it up!  However, a little birdie told me they are in the process of rewriting the directions…